Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #40 - Shirley Aston

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

Another community pillar from Lloydminster. Born in 1937, she graduated a teacher from the U of S before moving to Lloydminster. She put in countless hours volunteering and above else her family & kids. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

Welcome on the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday, hump day. Hope everybody's having a great week. Things are cruising along here. We got another one on Taparia. But before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. Jim Spennerath and the team over at Three Trees Tap and Kitchen. They are going to operate the pro shop at the restaurant in Loon Lake at the Loon Lake golf course this year under the name Three Trees on the Lake. They'll be opening in May with a number of the three trees favorites on the menu.

And of course, this is going to be a place. where companies can hold their golf tournaments or any other special event. Personally, I just think when you go for a roundup at the lake and, you know, you want to stop back for a bevy or maybe a, not a decent meal, a very good meal. Now it's going to be under the Three Trees banner and that'll be super cool. I think Three Trees on the Lake is a pretty catchy name as well. Here in town, they got a new event coming up here on Thursday, April 28th. Melkut and Friends is going to be live music.

So get your reservation, get down there. If you're looking for reservations, give me a call. 780-874-7625. The deer and steer butchery, as this releases, this guy is making the track out to the deer and steer. He's going to take his hand at doing a little carving, so to speak. But of course, if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, the deer and steer butchery is the old Norman and Kathy James family-built butcher shop

with the north side of Highway 16 and Range Road 25. It was back in 1995. Now, it was used by local hunters from there on your area for custom cutting and wrapping. Well, fast forward, they've given it a facelift. They've hired Barry the Butcher who comes with 20 plus years of meat cutting experience here in the Lloydminster supermarket. And he's going to show me some things tomorrow, which or today. And so I'm excited.

If you got an animal or two, give me a call, 780-870-80-700. And I'll let you know if I'm still a lot. after a day with Mr. Berry. Ag land. They started back in 1957 as a John Deere equipment dealer with a staff of six. And then the time just seems to fly 60 plus years later. And they got three locations, of course, Lloyd Minster, Vermillion, and St. Paul, and a staff of over 130 times have changed.

They sell multiple products, John Deere, Brand, Brent, Bobcat, Dangleman, and AA trailers. And personally, if you're looking to see what they can do, go to agline.ca to check out their full inventory or give them a call 7808754471. Gartner Management is a Lloydminster-based company specializing all types of rental properties to help meet your needs. This guy, if you're looking for office space in the building, there is some space available. You can get small office, much like myself, or if you have multiple employees, of course, they can hook you up with that. Just give way to call, 780808, 50, 25. and if you're heading into any of these businesses,

make sure you let them know you heard about it for the podcast, right? Now, on to that ram truck rundown, brought to you by auto-clearing Jeep and Ram, the Prairie's trusted source for Chrysler. Dodge Jeep, Ram, Fiat, and all things automotive for over 110 years. Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, volunteer, and community pillar.

I'm talking about Shirley Aston. So buckle up. Here we go. Okay, it is, March 28th, 2021. I'm sitting with Shirley Ashton. So first off, thanks for coming in. Thank you. Now, I started all these off with, I want, when you go back to your childhood, your first memory that you can bring back. And you being born in 37, I'm really curious if you remember back in the Warriors in that time frame, what I'll,

let you take it from here. The war years, yes, the thing I remember about the war years is that when the news came on the radio and we didn't listen to much else on the radio, but when the news came on, everybody was completely quiet. You didn't dare talk while the news was on telling what was happening at the war. And when it ended, my... Three sisters rode bicycles from nine miles south of Weyburn into Weyburn for the celebrations. After, for VE Day or VJ Day, I don't know which it was, but they rode bicycles in to be there for that celebration. So that was, that's, those are the memories I have of the war and hearing, oh, so-and-so son didn't come home or something, you know. but yeah

did you did you have family members that went no it didn't my dad was the only one of our family that was in the area he had come from Ontario

and my mom didn't have any brothers there so no there was nobody from our immediate there were cousins that lived elsewhere that I didn't really know but yeah

four four girls right Right. What was the house like? Was it a small little farmhouse? No, we had a pretty good size. The house I was born in was very small, apparently. I don't remember it. But the house we lived in was a pretty good sized farmhouse. The three bedrooms upstairs and kitchen, dining room, one big room and a living room, and what have you. It was a pretty good farm. The people that had owned it had to move because the lady had asthma. so bad she couldn't breathe. So my mom and dad got the chance

to buy the farm and that was I was four years old I believe three to four and they didn't have the money of course but this guy wanted to go they were neighbors what have you they took a down payment and they bought the farm and they just

finished signing all the information about it one day and the next day we had a tornado go through a tornado a tornado it took the roof off our barn and demolished a bunch of small buildings but that was what they always said about how they just signed all the papers and the tornadoes but anyway they survived it no we had a nice nice house and it was good growing up very active did you have um did you have um running water power

uh none of those things no we walked to the well pumped water and carried it up to drink and In the spring or in the fall, my dad and some of the neighbors would go get water where they could. Later, it was a dugout, but not to begin with. Later, they got water from sluze and things and put it in. We had a cistern in the basement. So that was our water for the winter along with ice. And then when spring came, you. Can we talk about the cistern for a sec?

Because we were talking about grandma and grandpa Newman. And I renovated their old house. to. And they had the old sister. Right. Was it, was it, well, was it just a big hole in the ground underneath the house? That's right. Cemented. Cemented. Yeah. But like, could you like jump in it if you wanted to or was it like covered or how was it?

You know, I don't remember looking at that much, but I remember that there was a hose used. So I think it was just, I think it was just a hole where they could run the water in. But you actually don't remember it then? I don't remember the cistern itself. I know, you know, the pump that came from it and what have you. But as far as seeing the sister, it was just a cement piece in the basement. How about heat? We had a furnace that had in a kitchen stove,

and my dad would get up very early in the morning and go and stoke the stove. We used a coal in the furnace, and that had to be restoped in the morning and what have you. But that kitchen stove did the main part of the heat. Like the kitchen and dining room were all one room, and so that kept it pretty warm. And often if it got too cold in the winter, the living room just got cut off.

And it was darn cold upstairs, I can tell you. You jumped out of bed and hurried into your clothes or else Winston stood on a register and got dressed. I so many people who come in here talk about the cold and just how cold it was and I've had a few that were a little older than you and they can remember like waking up to a little bit of snow in the house and stuff coming through the walls and just some like pretty rough living conditions right and so when you mention cold I just I think well what my brain goes to and like cold isn't even remotely close to what you're talking about when you mentioned cold. No, and what I remember even more was going to school, the country school, and there was a furnace and the thing in the floor, you know, that you stood on to keep warm, register, thank you.

The register was probably about three feet square or so. Well, we would go to school and it would be so cold in there that we would all huddle around that register to try and keep warm. because somebody had gone and, you know, the older boys or whoever had gone and made the fire early in the morning, but it doesn't heat that soon. And oh, it used to be, and probably the insulation wasn't that good. It would be very cold in there. Here's the next one-I got for you that.

Because I love hearing the old one-room schoolhouse stories. How far did you have to travel to get to said schoolhouse? We were about a mile and a half. We weren't too bad. and we took a horse and cart or a horse and cutter. But it's funny, my grade one teacher died a week or so ago. She was 99 years old. And when she taught us, there were 35 kids in that little country school

and 10 of us were in grade one. Now, if she didn't have her hands full, fortunately, the grade 9s and 10s took correspondence rather than going into Weber and to school, so they would help with the little ones. but I don't know how she did it do you a 99

like I got to sit with oh I'm forgetting his name well good I'm glad I'm not the only one he's 99 I've got to interview 98 I think 98 is the oldest I've interviewed now and oh man like that's just like you're going back in time it's so cool

but one-room schoolhouse what else do you remember about a one-room schoolhouse you know I always hop by it so quick like I love hearing the journey of a mile and a half I can imagine in minus 40 getting hauled to school wasn't very much fun but what else about a one-room schoolhouse do you like stick out like obviously sitting in this little room here and we got lights everywhere and it's bright and it's warm and it's comfortable you got chairs what else did you have or do you remember about that room? Well, with COVID, you know, what we've all thought about was the pail of water with the picture that all 31 of us drank out of it.

You just grabbed a drink of water out of that picture. Nobody thought about doing anything else. That was, so when you think about COVID, you really think about that. But we had the desks, not a chair, but you've seen the old proper desks. Okay. Well, it wasn't unusual to go sometime in the spring, maybe, or maybe in the winter, and open your drawer and have a mouse jump out because the school wasn't that tight. The mice could get in around, you know?

Yes, there were lots. And the greatest part was the old furnace in the basement that had a great big ledge on it. So we took potatoes, and you put the potatoes in at recess, and at noon you had fresh baked potato for lunch. No, you've got to rewind that. Say that again? We baked the potatoes in the furnace. You'd put them in at recess and at noon and they would be black as black as black on the outside and we brought butter from home and you cut into that nice hot potato and put the butter and salt and pepper on it. It was wonderful. So you're like, A, that's awesome, but your lunch for, um, oh, we'd have something else. You'd have something else, but you'd make sure you always brought a potato to stick in the furnace so you could have a hot potato at lunchtime.

But you had to have something else because sometimes the older boys would think it would be fun to push somebody's potato into the fire, you know. So somebody might be missing a potato today. What was discipline like in those schools? It was very good. And again, I can't imagine how because that poor lady, wasn't that old and we had a new teacher

every year and some of them were even younger but we had grade 9 and 10 boys in there and you would know what grade 9 and 10 boys couldn't be like and I don't know how I don't know how she managed the discipline like she did and they would oh tricks one year we went to school Halloween day they had let cows into the school

overnight my dad was one of the ones on the school board and here they were the next day cleaning up this mess. I hope the boys had to stay and help them. I don't remember because I was younger, but yeah, there were some great tricks played. Doesn't matter the decade when it comes to school boys and school tricks shall be played. That's right. You're right. Yeah, for sure.

How about lighting? Was it by candle or by lantern? Just the windows. Like if there wasn't any light, you were out of luck. Like when they had school dances and things, then they took lanterns and what have you. But in the early days it was just the windows. They'd have a school dance in this little one-room schoolhouse? Oh, yes, but it was a pretty good size.

We had a pretty good size school. How big was it? Well, you figure out how much room 31. desks take with a little bit of an aisle between them. Oh, yeah, okay. Oh, yes. I mean, that was the life of the community, where those school dances and school card parties

and Christmas concerts, and that was our life. I've read, I'm reading, Dad got me reading Fort Pitt Trail. Yes. And about different families bringing the piano or whatever to the school. houses so that they could have music and stuff like that. Did the schoolhouse have a piano?

We always had a piano. I don't know how come or how lucky we wear, but we always had one. And that really makes a difference. Did you play the piano? No, but my oldest sister did. And she played for Christmas concerts and everything else. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was, it was great. Because we had a lot of music at home, so we certainly would have missed it if we couldn't have had it to school. You were a musical family? My mom and dad both sang and, you know, they didn't play instruments. Well, yes, my dad played moth organ, but yes, we always had a lot of music in our house. Your dad played what? A moth organ. Are you talking?

A harmonica. Sorry. Yeah, that's what we called. It was a both organ. I've never heard of call that before. Well, that's the old name, I guess. Yeah, harmonica. It was very good, yeah. And sorry, did you play an instrument that? I played piano accordion when I was younger. And a few years ago, I took up ukulele for a while, but my fingers don't work too good anymore. Piano accordion is an accordion. That's right.

Well, there were accordions that didn't have the keys. Yeah, they were just push-pull. These were the bigger piano accordion. What was, I feel like the piano accordion was really popular at one time. Because dad used to have one. Yeah, they were very popular. What was it about a piano accordion that, like was it something that was brought over from Britain or? I couldn't tell you.

I think the reason, you know, you could take them places, which you couldn't do with a piano. I think that was maybe part of the, but I have no idea. You know, I just know in my era that we happened to have a teacher in Weyburn. I was a teenager by then, and we had a teacher in Weyburn who taught piano accordions. know what happens when you get something like that, well, more people all of a sudden get involved. Get involved in it. Yeah. And I had had piano lessons as a kid from my older sister, but of course, I didn't practice enough. And, you know, kids are like, so, no, I really enjoyed it. This past week, they had family day out at school, so my oldest son is in preschool.

Okay. In the school days, did you have family days? Dad or mom got to come and see what you were doing or was that like did parents just stay away they dropped you off or Yeah, like we went on our own No like there were always Valentine parties and Halloween parties that younger brothers and sisters Came to like I can remember from very young getting to go to these parties because I had three older sisters Mom and dad it was the Christmas concert that was the highlight of the year my dad always always judged a teacher by how good the Christmas concert was. And sports days in later years, once we had a larger school unit, then we had sports days

and we went from one area to another. But as far as coming and sitting in on a class, no, I don't recall that ever happening at all. And even my first year teaching, I taught at Creelman, which was about 70 miles from Weyburn. No, I don't recall having parent-teacher interviews. As soon as I came to Lloydminster, there were parent-teacher interviews. But, no, I don't recall it in my day at all. Just a different world. It's, I mean, it's 80 years from then, essentially. Oh, exactly. Right? How far it's progressed since you started. Yeah, yeah, things change, that's for sure. How about the bathroom there?

Was it just an outhouse? We actually had an inside one. We were very fortunate, yeah. The outside ones we used in the summertime, but we did have an inside one for winter. We were very fortunate. It was a good-sized school. It was old, but it was a good-sized school.

What did you do for a hobby back then? What was, were you into sports? Was it playing music? Was it? Well, always music. And because I was the youngest, I always figured my mother kept me home an extra year so she'd have company for longer.

So I didn't start school until I was almost seven. And by the time I was that age, I was able to make pajamas on the sewing machine. She had me sewing and knitting and doing all kinds of things like that. The teacher did? No, I'm sorry, I'm talking about at home. Okay.

Oh, you're talking about at school? Oh, no, no, in general. Yeah, no, no, no, yeah. No, at home, yeah. She, like I say, she had me knitting and sewing and what have you. You didn't waste time in those days, you know. But we played a lot of cards. And I don't know what other games we had, not when I was that young.

It was mainly cards. Later, we played Ramoli and a few things like that. I guess growing up on a farm, I, uh, today's kids, we talk a awful lot about how short the leash is. You just don't let them go wandering the countryside. I'm sure farmers still do to some point. But I mean, in town you certainly don't. Growing up on the farm, did you get to wander and disappear?

Yeah, it was, yeah, this is it. We didn't disappear much because, you know, we'd have to go to the neighbor, so you wouldn't go there without permission from, but as far as anywhere around the farm. And I was driving the car by the time I was 11 years old around the farm. Do you remember what car it was? Oh, it was an old 39-Shive square. Yeah. But, you know, and my older sisters were mainly away, and so Dad needed help.

So if I could take lunch out to him or whatever, that was all help. You know, a farmer with four daughters was, we all learned how to do stuff around the farm. Where, I'm just laughing. I'm thinking, sorry, you got me thinking of you driving a car at 11 years old. I'm just, that doesn't happen anymore. No, no, fortunately. What were your chore? I assume on the farm you would have had many a chore.

Yeah. Which one did you absolutely detest that you didn't want to go do it? Or were you fine with all of them? I didn't like having any do with turkeys. Turkeys were horrible things. I didn't care for them at all. So if we had some that were laying eggs, I would like to stay away. I wasn't even that keen on hen's eggs because you've got to be. But we carried water from the well.

We rode the horse to go and get cattle. I never milked. Dad didn't make any of us do that. He would do the milking. We drove tractor for pulling a binder. If you know what a binder looks like. Well, each of us drove tractor, and dad would ride the binder. In the earlier days, of course, before my time, it had been horses,

but we did have the tractor then. And, yeah, well, it was tramping hay. Maybe that's my worst one is tramping hay. Tramping hay? Well, you'd take the hay rack out, and the men would throw the hay on, and then we tramped it down so that you could get more hay in a load. Okay.

Yeah. Dusty, dirty, hot. Girls get in there and tramp it down for us. That's right. That's what we did, yeah. Did you ever, um, Did you ever, with your parents, did you talk to them at all? You know, it's like something I always wish I would have done with Grandma Newman, right?

Like, I mean, obviously the technology's come a long way since those days. But with your parents, did you talk to them about their lives at all and some of the things they'd seen across? Not nearly enough, Sean. Not nearly enough. And I think back to things that I remember, oh, my mother told me that. I wish I'd listened more. And I, two of my old, my two oldest sisters are gone.

The next one will be 89 in May. She's in Winnipeg and we talk on the phone all the time. And it's constantly, well, I wonder, I wish we knew. So what do you, I'm curious, what do you wish you would have asked? Well, more questions about their growing up. And sometimes it's a picture of somebody that we don't know who it was. And well, I wonder what the connection was with this person. or just small things that hit you out of the clear blue

and you really wish you knew new. But I think if people had been doing more like interviews and things like this, you'd have a lot of that. But sure didn't in my day, that's for sure. Yeah, we always, like, grandma should have wrote a book. She was such a, I don't know, she was a wonderful lady. And I don't know, you wish, I wish I'm the youngest of five.

So by the time I got to the age where I wanted to ask the questions, it was too late. It was too late. And now I'm going, huh, that sucks, right? Right. What are some of the things you do remember about your parents, lesson-wise or just story-wise? Mom told a few more stories. She was more.

Dad was quite quiet. He had come from Ontario when he was 17 years old on a farm, exchange, like they would come and work in the West for the summer, and he ended up staying. So we knew very little about his family until I was 14 when we finally made a, I made a trip east with them and got to meet some of these relatives. So we would ask him more about his family and what have you and what they did as kids, but I didn't really know a lot about them. I never knew a grandparent.

My grandparents were all dead. I didn't know any of them. I feel I really missed something. I'm glad to have grandchildren and great-grandchildren because I felt I had really missed out on things like that. But, yeah, I don't know what kind of stories they told us. People didn't tell stories on themselves in those days, you know. If there'd been something that had been wrong, you wouldn't have heard about it.

That was not something that happened. we were always expected to be you know now you don't do anything you know you do this properly you're your young lady i'm very much a uh um a focus on manners and and uh definitely being respectful yeah yeah yeah when you graduate i assume you graduated from high high school i high school school. Yes. Okay. When you graduated or in your high school years,

did you have like an idea of like I want to do this now? From the time I was this old, I was going to be a teacher. Really? Mm-hmm. And you could ask my friends. I drove them crazy because I was always, yeah, we'd play school. Yeah, I was always going to be a teacher. So, yeah, it wasn't.

So when you graduated then, where were you off to? Did you go to college? I went to Moose Jaw to Teachers College. Okay. Which up to that stage had been normal school, been called normal school. Fortunately, just a year or so before I went, they changed it to teachers' college. So I had a year there. And then I went and taught for a year at Creelman, Saskatchew.

I got a backup. So it was called normal school? Normal school. So you graduated from high school, and then you went to school? to normal school. So it was just, I guess, it was just like another step. So lots of people went to normal school then. Oh, yes.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and lots of people went to teachers' colleges. Yeah, true, true. Yeah. And so before you went to normal school, they changed it to a teacher's college. Okay. How far away, well, Moose Jaw, what would that be from where you were that? Oh, an hour and a half, 80 miles, I think.

But in those days, that was, that was an hour and a half. half. That's right. Did you live in residence then? No, I boarded with a lady from Weyberton. Oh, okay. She was working there and she was the age of one of my sisters and so that was how I managed to board with her. What did you think of teachers college? It was good. I enjoyed it. To me it was a lot better than university. I had a year of university later and in teachers college They actually taught us how to teach, which I didn't find in my year at university, but I know now when they're in university they go out and spend their time, you know, they spend several weeks teaching and what have you.

And they wouldn't have done that back then? We did, two weeks spring and two weeks fall. But, you know, two weeks wasn't long enough to. And we went to big towns like eyebrow and places like that to do our practice teaching. Yeah. What did you think of your first teaching job? It was fine. I think it was probably what I expected.

I had grades three and four in this small town. And we each had a separate school practically. The high school was in one big school, but they'd had to haul in old country schools to make up the rest. So we each had our own school. I think I heard that correctly. So at this school, they hauled in a bunch of the ones from out in the rural area that weren't being used anymore or they wanted to conglomerate them.

So you each had like a little building where you were teaching different grades. That's right. And then I think it was grade seven and up. We're all in the original school building and the rest of us were in the little ones. But yeah, no. No, it was good. What took you, is it from there then you go back to university? I did after a year.

Yeah, you had to get your intern standard certificate. They called it within so many years of when you started teaching. So I just took the year and went to university to get that certificate. And then I came to Lloyd. So what brought you to good old Lloyd Minster? What was the attraction of coming this way? Well, while I was at university, I became very friendly with a gal from Moose Jaw. And she had taught it, Onion Lake.

at the Anglican Day School for a year or so, and then had come to university. And she wanted to come back to Lloyd, and I said, well, that's great. I've never been there. I'm all game to go somewhere different, so that's what I did. What was Lloyd Minster like when you first strolled through? Well, of course, it had just become a city, which was 5,000 people at that time. So it had just become a city. the thing that hit me the most at the first year here was the wind didn't blow.

It was absolutely wonderful. There were so many trees. You'd go for a drive and you'd see all these trees and there was no wind. And my relatives didn't believe me, but my mom and sister came for Christmas that year and they finally found out my sister was all having a fit. She had to get home because she had to get to work. and we were supposed to have a snowstorm. And I said, look, it won't matter.

It's not going to hurt anything. Well, and it didn't because we didn't have winds like we have today. So you're saying in the countryside was trees everywhere. Well, a lot more than there are now. I mean, people were farming, so obviously there was farmland, but then the government wanted them to have more farmland, so they paid them to cut the trees. So a lot of farms where you would think there'd never been a tree,

they're really where. This is bucking what I thought I knew, because what I thought I knew was that back in the day, they had raging grass fires. But that's, you're going back to the time of the bar colonists then. And they still had them in the south where I was from, but up here, I don't know. I don't remember any after I came here, but I certainly know that there were many more trees than there are.

You'll have to ask your dad. I will. I'll definitely do that because I just assumed from what I've read, which, I mean, is raging grass fires and with that, it would burn everything. Yeah. But the no wind is a new one. I've never, that is definitely not, if we are known for one thing in this town, the wind. Wind always blows. But it certainly didn't in those.

I can remember day after day you'd go to school in May, June, and it was always beautiful. There weren't winds like that. It was just completely different than what I remembered from home. What was one of the things when Lloyd got it? You were over the moon about, you know, like now I don't know what it is. It's probably some fancy restaurant or maybe one of the big stores that came to town. But if you rewind the clock and you got a little city of 5,000 people, what was a big development that everybody was excitable?

Oh, that's something I haven't thought about at all. No, I can't name you anything at the moment. Things gradually came, but I suppose it was quite a big deal when the mall came, probably, but that was a bit later. Yeah, I can't help you there. When did you meet Doug? I came in 58, I met him in the fall of 58, and it took him until the next spring to ask me out. But we got engaged in September 59.

and married in 60. Also, it was, it was when you knew, you knew. Yes, that's right. That's right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now, he's since passed. Mm-hmm.

But in the years, well, what did you say? How many years were you guys married? 48. 48. In 48 years of marriage, I love asking people, what did you,

what lessons can you pass along from being with someone that long and making things work and, you know, it isn't all ups. I mean, it's certainly a rollercoaster of life. What are some things you learned about that time together?

You need patience and conversation. I would say those are the two big things because we're different people and we change as we get older. Like when your kids leave home and there's just the two of you back again, that's the change.

And if you don't, you know, converse with each other, well, and like I say, the patients, we're both going to change so things are going to bug us about the other person, you know. Like I'm sure a lot of people have found out during COVID. I would think so, yes. Yeah. Yeah, so I think those are two things that really, really are important. Hmm.

Yes, I, well, I guess you just, I admire how many years that is. That's a long, long time. That's a lifetime, right? Yeah, yeah. And as we, yeah, and you're going to see some things over that time. That's right, yes, yeah, yeah. No, no, we had good years, that's for sure. I in some one of the things I'd read

was that you got to experience 4-H in its early days I did yes that was when you asked me what we did that that was a real boom for me again I was the only one of the girls that got to do it it hadn't been as popular previous to that but one of my sisters I mean there were lots of girls but yeah I was very fortunate in the 4-H beef club and it was you know

interacting with kids my own age as well as older ones and we had public speaking classes and we went to 4-H meets and every year you had the fair when you sold your calf and it was really good learning time good teaching time I really enjoyed 4-H. Well 4-H has been a mainstay now for a lot of years. It sure has. And it's a way to, well, one of the things I want to say I read was that it taught you lessons that you still hold true to this day. Yes, well, definitely, because like I say, it was all about, you know, getting along with people and doing the right thing. And like I say, the classes that we took were helpful. And yes, I really enjoy.

and leadership because we had a meeting once a month and we had to have a chair and a secretary and whatever, and that was all helpful. How about Farm Girls Camp? Oh, yeah. That was great, too. What is Farm Girls Camp? It was at the fair at the exhibition, which would be three days at the beginning of July. And you got together a group of three girls and you went,

to camp and you were told months ahead of time you had to do some sewing item and some cooking item to take to camp and then they were judged as to who had the best biscuits and the nicest apron or whatever it was and again there were other teaching things that went along with it but yeah it was another good learning experience. It's like 4H. You know, after the war years, people really got to start to develop and build things in infrastructure in towns, and all these clubs start coming together and really giving opportunities for kids to be involved in things and grow and self-developing that kind of thing.

I assume that was pretty evident. Did you get involved with any of yourself? Yes, I was always involved. My mom was involved with whatever went on in the community, and we grew up with that type of involvement. And that was my thing. Once I quit teaching, it was all about volunteering and whatever way was possible, wherever it was needed.

and with my kids, if they were involved in skating or hockey or whatever, well, I'd be involved with the parent group or whatever went along with it, Sunday school and teaching and, you know, all this type of thing. Well, we should talk about religion. It has been a very big part of your life. Oh, a very big part. Grace United Church. 62 years in the choir.

62 years in the choir. Mm-hmm. Not in the last year, unfortunately. Yeah. Yes, yeah, I've been very involved in Gracian Aid Church. You bet, in every angle, women's group, what have you. What has it been, was that something from your parents handed down? Yes, we had a country church just a couple of miles from us,

which we always attended, and my mom was the head of the Sunday school. and yeah and then they moved the church away and then we started going into Weaver into church and it happened to be Grace United, same as here and so it just carried on I mean immediately when I came to Lloyd I joined the choir and got involved and whatever else was happening.

I was never a very good singer. I don't think anybody bought me in there for 62 years. How has you, You know, everybody knows that what we're currently living through this past year now is a very, well, it probably has never happened in your lifetime before, but no. What do you make of what we're going through right now? I mean, you've seen, I lean on my elders as you've seen a heck of a lot more than what I've seen my short time. What do you make of what's going on? It's the whole world's in a mess. I mean,

we've just never seen anything like this. And it sounds like, you know, wearing masks could be the norm and there could be more viruses and what have you. I hate to even speculate. I mean, the people that are supposed to know these things don't know what's going on. So how could the rest of us? How much have you missed singing at the choir? Oh, very much, yes. Yeah, very much. We were actually in church this morning, and hopefully we'll be able to be open again, you know, partially.

But we certainly won't be singing in the choir because you're not allowed to sing in the first place unless a few people who are a distance away from others, but I think it'll be quite a while before we'll ever be having a choir again. You're not allowed to sing. No. Singing is supposed to spread the germs. So fortunately, the front of our church is far enough from the pews that we can have a quartet or whatever up there.

But people in the pews, even though we're spread to pews part. You know, in all my days, I don't care what they say about germs and everything else. Singing don't spread nothing but joy and happiness. Yes. And at a time like this, I think the world could use a little bit more of that. That's for sure. That's where I am with music. It spreads joy and happiness, just like you say. But we're very fortunate that we can have the group, like I say, a quartet or a trio singing at the front. So at least we're getting the music, but we don't get to sing it ourselves. That's the difference.

Hmm. Have you, has, no, what is something you've been presented? proud about then? What is one of your proudest accomplishments in your lifetime? Well, I guess the two of us raised three children that were proud of that are involved in their communities and have done well. That would certainly have to be on top. Something to hang your hat on. That's right. Yes. Yeah. You bet. When they were, no, I'm going to remember. rephrase this. What was your favorite stage in the first 18 years? And I know that's kind of a loaded question because you could just say, I like them all. But did you have an age range where you just

enjoy them? Good question. You know, you enjoy them when they're, which you may hard have, and I know you're enjoying yours, but when you have four under four, under three under, soon to be five. Okay. Three under, Shea turns five, April 7th. At that time, you think, oh, you know, when are they ever going to grow up? That's right. But it is a very enjoyable stage. There's no doubt about it.

And you enjoy them when they're young teenagers, but yet there's a lot of strife around teenagers. So I don't know. Like I say, each stage is different. It's hard to define. I'll butcher Mark Twain. I was reading Mark Twain earlier this week, and he said there's no music like a babbling infant trying to learn to speak. Something along that lines.

I'm butchering it a little bit, but I was like, nah, that's pretty much true. And our youngest, Casey, he's a year and a half, roughly, and he's learning to speak. and you take all the other side stuff away. It's a fun little spot because they're just like they're trying to figure a little, they're getting their little personality kind of figure out. That's right. That's right.

Yes. And I have three little great-grandchildren and a fourth one on the way. And two of them are about three. And I'm sorry, I cannot understand them. Their parents, of course, do. But I have trouble with it. They have their own little. It's a new language.

It is. Yes. Yeah, it sure is. Yeah. Let's go back to your kids. So you had three kids. In the early years, or when they're living in your house, what was it as, I mean, obviously that they don't get harmed and all that stuff. But do you remember what you were concerned about at those times?

with your children specifically. The reason I bring it up is because right now, whether you're, you know, like weeds legalized, right? So you talk about drugs and you talk about alcohol and I know drugs and alcohol were around back then. Oh, definitely. But was that something you were really worried about or not so much? Yes, you were because even in the 70s,

even in the 70s, 80s, it was a problem in the junior. your high and what have you here. We knew that, you know, there were problems. It was, everybody was always concerned about what was going on, no doubt about it. So what did you do as a parent to try and counteract it or could you? Probably all the wrong things just talked against it, you know, which, you know. Why is that a wrong thing? Well, like kids don't, usually they do the opposite to what you say is, don't they so, you know, but I don't know. I mean, and, Maybe we didn't talk enough. I know some parents probably sat down and were more specific than we were.

We were fortunate. But it's, it is, and it has been a problem for a long time. Yeah, no doubt about it. And then when they get their driver's license, you worried about car accidents. And there's always something to worry about. I just had, I just, I, just, I. I was wondering, do you remember when they brought seatbelt laws in? Yes, and how people didn't want them.

Do you remember going, this is absurd, or were you like, this makes complete sense? I think we probably all thought it was a little absurd to start with, but you did it because it was, you know, you realized, okay, this must be the thing to do. But there were a lot of people who refused to put on a seatbelt. Yeah, just the same as they refused to put on a mask or whatever. They weren't having anything to do with seatbelts. And it's definitely been proven to be saved lives, that's for sure. It is kind of funny when you think about it, right?

Like, I mean, in saying that, I don't know, as a government, you put things in place to help keep people safe. People ignore it. Well, but what are you going to do? You can't force people to, like, when you start forcing people to do things, that's where you get into a little bit of danger, right? Like an overextensioned power, you can lead a horse to water, so to speak. But it's up to them to drink it. Like, I mean, you can't ram its head in the bail.

No, that's right. No, it's strange, but people like to do their own thing. Have you follow politics all your days? Have you been into that? Not like some people. I mean, when I was still at home, I always heard a lot about politics. And I mean, I've always heard it, but I don't, like I know a lot of people that are watch it all on TV all the time and they're keeping track of the Americans and what's

happening. And I'm not that deeply into it. No, I know who's running when there's an election and who I'm interested in and what have you. But no, I'm not, I wouldn't say I'm deeply into it at all. Tell me about, well, I can't even read it. It's the organization you want to talk about. I call it the archives, but it's not that which started back in the centennial year. It was the, our original name was Lloyd Dins.

Minster and Districts and Centennial Commemorative Association. And isn't that a mouthful? That is a mouthful. That's a mouthful. We got started back in the 70s, about 74 or so. And it started because Lynn Manners and I were met and were talking somewhere, and we both had relatives, distant relatives that we really didn't even know, had shown up and wanted information on.

their families, which was maybe the other side of the family that we knew anything about. And they had done research before they ever got to us. I guess likely when somebody they got a name and somebody referred them to whoever. Anyway, they both told us that the only way they could get any information, they'd gone to the newspaper, and they had been told that to go to Mr. Baiton's house, that was the only place that they knew of where they could, and they had sent them there to look at old newspapers. And we both said, you know, this is just ridiculous.

There needs to be something going on. Well, apparently there had been other people saying the same thing. But we happened to meet with Mayor Plant and said, you know, something we need to get in archives going somehow. And he said, well, what's wrong with you do? So we had a meeting of people that we knew felt the same. and that was what got the archives company off the ground. And our first job, we went and saw Mrs. Bainton

because Senior George Bainton was no longer alive. And she gave us permission to go into their basement. He had one copy of every paper from 1905, at least one copy. In some cases, there were piles of copies. at least one copy of every Lloydminster Times since they had started in April of 1905. So we got a group of people together, and we went through all those papers, and we saved one of each one to go to the Saskatchewan archives, because they were keeping them all and digitizing them and what have you.

And then, because we needed funds, we sold. the papers. People would come and want a paper the year they were born or when they were married or whatever. And we sold as many papers as we could. And that was our first fundraiser was selling those papers. And how much did you earn? Or do you remember? Oh, I don't even remember. I couldn't tell you. But it was, it really created interest because like I say, when people realized these were available, well, yeah, I was married in such and such year. My kids were and they buy one each year when the kids were born or whatever. And, of course, they were such interesting reading.

I mean, if you've ever, you need to go to the archives someday and have a look. Very interesting reading. Everything was, it was very small town. I'm curious, though, when you were going through all these papers, what was the one that you can just recall that was like, whoa? Well, I think the earlier ones really were, because it would be Mrs. Smith's fell on such and such a street and sprained her ankle or so-and-so's horse fell dead on the way to town, you know, all this type of thing from the very early years, no doubt about it.

They were, and fortunately then the Rotary Club bought a digitizing machine for the library and so they could start digitizing the papers so that we didn't have to have all these papers sitting around. But one thing just led to another until 19, no, 2001, we opened the archives in the library, in a backroom in the present, where the present library is. And then in 2003, it was officially opened when we had the centennial. And, of course, it started very small, but as you know now, where we are now, in the building that's going to be torn down. It was great to get into a larger facility,

and then as of this year, the city have taken over. Up till this time, the committee has been running it. And the only reason we were able to do, well, part of the reason we were able to do it was the centennial. We also were working on the centennial at the same time as we were working on getting the archives going, because Lloydminster was going to be 100 years old, and we wanted to celebrate it.

And we did big time. And we had banquets for several years before. We did raffles. We did everything to raise money. And lots of grants that people worked to get the grants coming in, what have you. And we've been living off that money basically since, except for the fundraising that's carried on. But it was our base.

It really was. And so the two things, really went together and it's I'm very proud of it anybody that's been involved with us very proud of it by the centennial we had a huge committee and we had eight-day celebration which you maybe don't remember I can't say I do yeah well we did we had a big party and people from all over including Isaac Barr's grandson from Australia and Reverend Lloyd's son grandson and daughter from Ontario.

It was a great time. Many, many people came back that had been away. And I noticed that in 1977, we had 19 interviews on record. Really? 1977 there was 19? Yes, because there had been parties for the 50th and the celebration of the town. And a radio station or somebody had come and done some interviews.

Like you've heard of Messom's store. Yeah. Well, they had interviewed the Messums back then, and a few people like that that had been interviewed way back. Ooh, they'd be super interesting, wouldn't they be? You go to the archives. Well, like I said, before we could, kick this off like going there and finding grandpa don's interview was a shock to me yeah and uh wow

i mean videos well the video is part of it like certainly enjoy being able to uh to see the person but just hearing them and hearing their thoughts he's like whoa that's that's something cool uh i just think of our family and for my grandkids coming down the line right you want to hear and there's been some absolute amazing people come through Lloyd Minster. Yes, there have. And to try and capture everything they've seen or done or experienced is a huge task. That's right. But then on top of it to try and preserve it like the archives is doing is a monumental task, right?

Like, I mean, you're not talking about, well, let's keep it for 10 years. No. It's trying to figure out a way to make sure that it is passed down and down and down and down. Yes, that's right. Yeah, it is. And like I say, of course, this year again, now we haven't been able to do any fundraising. So it's a good thing that we're into the city now. But no, it's been, it was a good time, and it was a fun time, and it was worthwhile. So how many years then, essentially, like 20 years, you served on the archives? Yes. Yeah, I've been on the centennial board since 19.

94, 95. Oh, more than that, then. But I missed one term. The term after the centennial, I decided I better give my husband a break. And I took one term off there and stayed home to cook more or something, you know. You know, you talk about staying home. When I go back, I kind of skipped over this. Or at least now I'm thinking about it, is you dreamed of being a teacher growing up.

Right. Then you taught for a few years, but you didn't stay as a teacher. No. And we were talking back in those days, that's essentially what you did. That's right. That's right. When you had a family, basically you stayed home and raised the family. And I did, and my youngest started kindergarten, and I decided, okay, I'd go back and sub.

Well, I think I went about three or four different days, and things had changed. changed so much in the years that I just was completely uncomfortable. I said, no, I'm not doing this anymore. So I just got more involved in volunteering. And then a few years later, I got the, well, no, right about the same time, I got the opportunity to be the high neighbor hostess for Lloydminster. The what? High neighbor. It was an organization who, well, as the, the as the high neighbor hostess, it was my job to go out and get sponsors in the businesses in the community. So these sponsors would say, okay, if somebody new comes to town, we'll give them a coupon for this or we'll give them so much money off that or whatever. Okay, I got you.

Yeah. So you would get as many sponsors as you could. Then when someone new came to town, it was my job to go and visit them, take the basket, as we called it, with all these different sponsorships and things in it, plus information on where to find doctors, where to find dentists, where to find whatever else, anything they wanted to know about a new town. I loved it.

It was a great job because you were out there meeting new people. Meeting new people and helping them out and what have you. And I did it for, I guess, well, into the early 80s. And then, well, when the boom hit, which I think was about 80, too many people coming too fast. And also, earlier I'd been able to do the visits during the day because they'd come in, the men would have a job,

but the women wouldn't, they'd be at home. But then by that time, when they came, a lot of them, both the men, the woman had a job already. And so you had to do your visits at night, which was no good. For me at that stage, I still had a teenager at home. So I gave it up then, but it was fun. It was great. You know, we've talked a lot about the highs of life, the best parts.

And it's difficult to talk about probably the toughest parts of life, but there's a lot of value in discussing those. What has maybe been one of the things that's been? one of the toughest parts in your life? Well, the loss of my husband would, of course, hit the top of that market, even though he had had heart attack and had been ill for several years,

he just died suddenly. So, you know, that would be the thing that would hit me. And now, as an older person, people dying every day that I know. But, no, that's... The people dying every day must be a little bit, I don't know, is surreal the right work? Well, that's, you know, you had a question about surreal, and I couldn't think of an answer, but there you are. Yes, it is, yeah.

Because like this winter, well, most winters, it's like that. But now they're getting to be, well, a lot of them are younger, but there are a lot of friends too, which, you know, makes a difference. you really notice it. That's going to be like, as grandma would say, you know, spring check. That's right, that's right. But it's got to be just a weird stage of life. Because for so many years, and you've been busy, and I just think of myself right now.

My group of friends, I just expect they're going to be there tomorrow. And the day after, and the day after. and if they aren't, it would come as an extreme shock. That's right. But now you've graduated, which is probably not the right, but you've kind of moved into this new spot. I remember grandma talking about it. Yes.

I was too young to fully comprehend. But now that I sit here and I'm like, that is a, that must be difficult. And, you know, I feel sorry for my kids because I well remember my mother. We didn't phone a lot by the, in my early days. here, but we wrote letters all the time. And every letter would be so-and-so died, so-and-so died. And now I'm doing it to my kids. I phone them, oh, so-and-so-die. And it's just, well, that's our life. I mean, we don't have a lot of other things that are high on our list of what's happening today. So what do you tell them? Tell them about who died, you know? Well, I mean, it goes back to

there's a I just came well you we all go through these stages at one point it's oh did you hear who got married I'm tired of wedding every weekend now everybody in COVID's going I will go to every wedding just give me a wedding to go to but then after you got the weddings then you graduate to kids oh did you hear who had kids and then that becomes like yes everybody's having kids like it's just it's kid overload and now you're like I like I go back you're in this weird stage of. Yeah. Now it's funerals and that we haven't been able to go to, which has made it even harder.

That either there haven't been funerals or you haven't been able to go to them. So you don't have that feeling that, you know, it's, there's nothing final about it. But anyway, that's the way it goes. Well, I do appreciate you sharing a little bit. I know the toughest parts are not the easy, you know. You know, everybody loves to talk about the good times. Well, yeah, the trips you went on and this and that, those were the good times. Yeah, you bet.

Well, before I wind this up on you, is there anything I've skimmed by? I always, you know. Yeah, the Cancer Society. Oh, the Cancer Society. I really have to talk about Cancer Society. That was, I think, 1982. For several years, there had been somebody organizing a drive. in the spring for the Cancer Society.

But they would come in from Saskatoon and get a couple of people to organize the blitz. And they take the money and they go and that's it. So that year, Ron Honsberger, and I can't remember where he worked. I have a feeling he was at the city, but I'm not sure. Anyway, he was the business captain and I was the residential captain for the...

And we got together and we said, you know, this is ridiculous. All this money is going out of town. We're getting nothing back out of it. So, again, we got together some people who'd been involved before, and we brought in the head people from Saskatoon, and actually Vagerville was where the Alberta one came from,

and we told them we wanted to organize into a unit because they already had eight or nine units in Saskatchewan, and we wanted to be a unit. So that was fine. agreed, but who were we going to go under, Saskatchewan or Alberta? Well, at that time, Saskatchewan were doing a much better job in the Cancer Society than Alberta where, so we went with Saskatchewan. So then we could not canvas outside of the city of Lloyd Minster on the west. We could go east as far as halfway to North Balford or whatever. So that was a very big thing,

because we got started. The office was in my basement to begin with, and then we were in Matt Dubik's jewelry store in a corner somewhere until we finally got into an office. And again, it grew and grew, and it became a very big part of Lloyd Minster, the daffodil days and the walks at the night walks and all this. And it was something I was very happy to be a part of to get the organization in Lloyd.

Because with that, again, there had been people doing counseling and what have you before, but it wasn't out there because there wasn't the organization that people knew what was happening. I'm curious, actually. when you were getting involved with the archives, the Cancer Society, what was it about the Cancer Society in particular? Because I feel like why I know this is me. So I can get involved in 30 million different organizations tomorrow, give all my energy to it and make that a great organization.

So which is the right one becomes the question? Because you can't do them all. You don't have enough time. That's right. So why did you choose the Cancer Society? I had lost my mother to cancer. Oh, okay. So that probably was what got going on that one.

Yeah. And the fact that, like I say, I had been asked to do the blitz. And when we got talking about what was happening with the money, it just didn't make sense that we should just have somebody come in and do a blitz and then be gone again. Yeah. Yeah. So, no, I'm sure it was because of my mother that that was why I got. involved with it. Yeah. Yeah. One other thing you mentioned now that I'm seeing my notes is a sandy

beach. Well, Doug's family had lived at sandy beach most of their like for in the summers. Okay. They had a cabin there. They had a cabin there. Yep. And so automatically we all became part of sandy beach and um, Elner Campbell and I decided back in the 80s that we need to, to write a book because it was the same old story. They're talking about people and things. We don't know anything about. Where are they? What's happened to them? They don't live here anymore. So we contacted everybody that we could think of and asked them to write their story. And then the stories were put together into the Sandy Page book. And the funny part is, I don't know if you watch, I was born in Lloydminster. It's somebody started online.

Online. Yeah. Yeah. Apparently, it came up there and somebody wanted a Sandy Beach book. Well, we still had a few of them at the archives, but the thing is, these things were made on a hectoraf machine, and they're getting very faded. What on earth is a hectoraph? Oh, well, okay, that's going back. It was a, I don't know how to describe it, a thick of a cookie pan or a cake pan. And there was like a jelly like substance in it and you put this purple color on it and then you pressed your paper into it. You pressed your original copy into it and then you pulled these papers off. And that's that was that was our machine in my day of teaching.

And that was what we ended up using for when we made this book. Oh my God, that had to have been time consuming. Oh yes, it was. had a lot of people involved in that one too. And out of that grew the Sandy Beach reunion. There always had to be a party involved with these things. Actually, that's probably been the toughest thing about this year is that we're social, social creatures that aren't allowed to get together and be social. That's right.

And you can just, you know, mental health has been a huge, has been growing even before COVID. It's been becoming a bigger and bigger and bigger thing. And now she is a giant thing. That's right. And the longer we're not allowed to get together and socialize and, you know, see friends and family. Right. It weighs on people. Yeah.

It really does. Yeah. No, that is for sure. Well, I've really enjoyed this. This has been a real treat to have you come in and talk a bit about your life. Is there anything else before I let you go that I haven't? Oh, we better quit. That's enough.

Well, thanks again for coming in. And thanks for doing this for the archives. I tell you what, I, to me, it's, it's, I get to sit here and, and just like soak in as much information as a guy can. It's a different group of people than what you started out interviewing. That's right. That's right. Yeah, it's super interesting for me.

So everybody thanks me for sitting here. And I'm going, yeah, but I really enjoy this. Like, this has been entertaining the entire way through. So the only sad thing is eventually it'll come to an end and I'll carry on my way. Well, we'll both will. That's right. But yeah, no, thanks again for coming in. Thank you.

Hey, thanks for tuning in today, guys. Hope you enjoyed it. If you haven't liked and subscribed to the podcast, please sure to do that. Tell a friend, share away. And if you want to support in the show notes, there is the Patreon account link. Appreciate anything and everything you guys continue to do for me. and we will catch up to you Friday, all right? Until then.